


Experimental Kisses

by komorebirei, mireille (komorebirei)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Banter, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, Flustered Superheroes, Heart-to-Heart, Inspired by a Cute Comic, Kisses, LadyNoir - Freeform, One-Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-09 09:49:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20992823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/komorebirei/pseuds/komorebirei, https://archiveofourown.org/users/komorebirei/pseuds/mireille
Summary: Ladybug watched him. Maybe it was guilt, maybe sympathy, maybe a streak of playfulness. Maybe the traumatic akuma experience had softened her up. Whatever the reason, a thought wafted lazily through her mind and out of her mouth. “You know… you’re right. It isn’t fair, is it?”Chat Noir looked up.“I remember my first kiss, but you don’t.” She hummed and tapped her chin, making a show of remembering. “It wasn’t a bad kiss, but we were in the middle of fighting an akuma, so I didn’t get to enjoy it much, either.”Oops—that came out sounding a little, no, alotmore flirty than she had intended. Anyway, if she was going to commit to this idea, she may as well go all in.





	Experimental Kisses

**Author's Note:**

> This one-shot was inspired by an [adorable comic](https://sakura-rose12.tumblr.com/post/131675453777/experimental-kisses-looking-over-a-glowing-paris) that I saw on Tumblr.
> 
> Note: Dislocoeur is Dark Cupid's French name. Valentine's Day goes against my religious beliefs, so I chose not to use the name Cupid.
> 
> I hope you enjoy the story!

Their eyes met across the rooftop, about to part ways at the tail end of a grueling akuma fight, but something about the look on Chat Noir’s face made Ladybug hesitate.

“Is everything okay, Chaton?”

His eyes peeled away, as if he were embarrassed. “... Honestly? Not really,” he confessed.

“What’s wrong?”

“It was a close call this time, LB. I don’t know how you came up with that crazy plan and how it actually worked, but…” He let out a shaky, self-conscious laugh. “I was so afraid of losing you. I feel a little… traumatized.”

“Oh, Chaton…”

His smile disappeared, as if it required too much energy to maintain. “Do you mind if I…”

Ladybug crashed into him with a hug before he had finished asking. He looked like he needed it, and the way his arms wrapped around her, as if she might evaporate if he didn’t hold her tightly enough, confirmed it.

They held the embrace for a few seconds, and Ladybug had the distinct thought that she felt _ safe _there.

When the miraculouses gave another warning beep, Chat Noir released her reluctantly. “I know you don’t like spending extra time together, but… just this once… could you stay? Just for a few minutes. Please? You brought a snack for your kwami, didn’t you?”

After a beat, Ladybug nodded—feeling indulgent, and partly pained by how dejected he looked, wanting to see the way his face would light up when she agreed. “I always do.”

Joy flooded his face, and Ladybug restrained her fond smile, loath to encourage him too much.

They slipped into an alcove of the nondescript roof they had been standing on and sat back to back as the miraculouses gave their final beep, releasing their transformations.

They fed their kwamis in silence before retransforming and settling near the edge of the roof. It was a tallish, long, and flat building near the top of Montmartre, shielded from pedestrian eyes by a perimeter of short safety walls and neighboring buildings—directly below them was an alley—but offering quite a breathtaking view of Paris. The superheroes went unnoticed, brushing shoulders as they sat side by side, overlooking the city.

Dusk approached with a golden glow, and the city lights were starting to turn on, echoing the hue of the sky.

“How do you do it, LB?” Chat Noir’s voice was scarcely audible over the pedestrian murmur and the sound of bird calls.

Ladybug turned to look at his profile. “Do what?”

“Handle the pressure. If you make a mistake… all of Paris ends up dead.” Chat Noir let out a morbid chuckle.

Ladybug covered her face and moaned. “Oh, God, Chat Noir. I really do _ not _ need you reframing it that way. I try _ not _to think about that.”

“Sorry.” He did sound sorry.

A car passed somewhere below, playing loud music, but from Ladybug and Chat Noir‘s vantage point, they couldn’t see anyone. It was like they were in another, parallel universe, filled with the sounds of civilian life, but separated. It felt peaceful, especially since they were usually the center of public attention every other time they crossed paths.

Ladybug pondered how to answer Chat Noir’s question. Considering her tendency to catastrophize, she wasn’t sure herself how she managed to keep a cool head when dealing with akumas.

“Hmm… have you ever read _ La Stratégie Ender?” _

_ “Ender’s Game, _ the American novel?” Chat glanced at her. “Yeah, it was part of my English curriculum last year.”

“Really? You read it in English?” Ladybug wrinkled her nose. Her English probably wasn’t good enough to do the same. “I read it in French a few years ago.” She was tempted to compare notes and comment that it hadn’t been part of _ her _ school curriculum, but he didn’t need to know that. He must go to another school, she noted.

“It was really good,” Chat went on excitedly. “I ended up reading the sequel, too, just for fun.”

Ladybug was intrigued by his reaction, realizing she didn’t know much about Chat Noir and what he liked. She could read his moods and predict what he was going to do next in battle, but the fact that he had enjoyed a book was coming as an utter surprise to her. “You like reading, Chaton?”

Chat Noir nodded and grinned at her. “You?”

_ Interesting, _ Ladybug thought. _ Didn’t think he would have the attention span to be a reader. _

“It’s okay,” she answered. “I like reading about subjects I’m into. Or if the story is really compelling. I can’t say I’ve read tons of books, but I tend to get a little obsessed with the ones I do like. Anyway,” she attempted to steer the conversation back to her original point. “So, _ La Stratégie Ender. _ You know how they had kids fighting intergalactic wars, but the kids thought it was all a game?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, it’s kind of like that for us, isn’t it? I mean, of course we know it’s all real, but … when I think of an akuma fight as sort of like a sport or a video game that I refuse to lose… it’s less scary. Don’t you think so? I figured that was why you joke around so much during battles.” She laughed dryly. “I mean, if I thought of it as ‘one-wrong-move-and-everyone’s-dead,’ I’d probably be too freaked out to function.”

“Sorry about that, again.” Chat made a contrite pout, before his face melted into an easy smile. “You’re right, though. That’s exactly it… when we think of it all like a game, it gets easier. Thanks for including me, by the way, even though I don’t deal with _ half _as much pressure as you do.”

“You be quiet, silly cat,” she admonished. “We’re a team.”

“You’re giving me too much credit. The world doesn’t end when _ I _ get hit by an akuma.” Chat flicked a stone off the roof, and it skittered against the asphalt of the alley below.

Ladybug crossed her arms, turning on her partner. “Most of the time, if you didn’t get hit by the akuma, _ I _would, and then where would we be? … You getting hit doesn’t mean you’re dispensable or less important in any way.”

“Still…” Chat Noir matched Ladybug’s imperious look with one of starry-eyed admiration, sidestepping the topic. “You’re amazing. You never make a mistake.”

Ladybug cracked up.

“What?” Chat demanded, slightly offended.

She stopped chortling to gasp, “You don’t honestly believe that, do you?”

“Yes, I do.” Chat was emphatic. “I’ll be honest, I’ve felt stumped and cornered before, but you _ always _ know what to do. How your brain works is a mystery to me—you never cease to amaze me. I mean, I’ve always thought I was pretty smart, but… I’d be hopeless without you.”

“So I know how to get out of a fix.” Ladybug shrugged. “You know why? Because I’m a disaster magnet, even as a civilian. I’ve made _ tons _of mistakes, Chaton.”

“Like what? Name one,” he challenged.

Ladybug pursed her lips in thought. “Umm…”

“See?” Chat cackled. 

“Hey, let me think!”

He stuck out his tongue. “Face it, My Lady Perfection. You’re perfect.”

Ladybug shoved him. “Stop saying that. You don’t even mean it anymore. You _ know _ that I’m not perfect.”

“To me you are,” he sang.

Ladybug rolled her eyes. “Okay, well… I’ve let my personal feelings affect the way I’ve acted toward people... like Chloé and Lila. I’ve gotten hit by akumas a fair share of times. Even worse, I’ve _ caused _ akumas. And I dropped a Miraculous! Which Chloé Bourgeois picked up, nearly killed a train full of people trying to prove herself, and became the city’s only shamelessly public superhero!”

“Check, check, check, done those things too, and… okay, you win. That last one was pretty bad.” He laughed.

“Exactly!” Ladybug cried. “It’s thanks to sheer Ladybug luck that we keep managing to come out on top with a disaster like me wearing these earrings.”

“Oh, come on, LB, you’re not that bad.” Chat tugged one of her pigtails affectionately. “Maybe you’re not perfect, but you’re the _ best _ at fixing things.”

“You’re sweet, Minou.” Ladybug swatted away his hand, but gave him a bright smile to compensate. “You know what, though? I don’t regret any of the mistakes we’ve made. I mean, we’ve learned something each time, don’t you think, Chaton? It’s okay to make mistakes, as long as we keep winning in the end.”

“You’re right, as always, Milady.”

They both fell silent, in mutual acknowledgement of the weight of Ladybug’s last words, and the implications that neither had the courage to speak about. _ As long as we keep winning in the end. Ay, there’s the rub. _

The silence was interrupted by a gargantuan sigh from Chat Noir.

Ladybug shot him a questioning look. “Hm?”

“I don’t regret my mistakes either, but… there _ is _ one thing I regret.”

“What, Minou?” Ladybug leaned closer in concern.

He was looking away. She pressed his shoulder in a gentle attempt to turn him around, but he shrugged her off with boyish obstinacy. “You’ll think it’s silly. Or get upset.”

“No, I won’t. Tell me.”

Chat Noir mumbled something.

“What was that? Chat Noir…”

He finally turned around, and Ladybug noticed his cheeks were burning. “I regret having forgotten what it’s like to kiss you,” he said in a soft, almost-too-formal tone. “That was my first kiss, too.”

“Oh, Minou…” Ladybug looked away, suddenly hyper-aware of her own lips and the way his eyes flitted to them unwittingly.

“See, now you’re upset with me,” he mumbled. 

Ladybug shook her head. “I’m not upset. … For the record, it was my first kiss, too.”

She remembered what it felt like to kiss him, to break Dislocoeur’s curse. Even though it wasn’t her dream first kiss, nor was it with her person of choice, she didn’t see it as having been wasted. Chat Noir was important to her, and he was a worthwhile use of her one and only first kiss. Now, she felt bad that she had unwittingly stolen his, and he didn’t even remember it. The fact that he actually had feelings for her probably just threw salt in the wound.

“I remember what it felt like,” she confessed, coming clean.

“What? How?” Chat Noir looked perplexed, and his questions poured out rapid-fire. “Didn’t the miraculous cure wipe both of our memories? So, what happened? How did we end up kissing? I thought this whole time neither of us had a clue what happened!”

Ladybug realized he was talking about Oblivio. Did that mean he didn’t realize she had kissed him during Kim’s akumatization? Or had he forgotten? “Slow down, kitty—you’re right. I have _ no _memories from Oblivio. I was talking about Dislocoeur. I had to kiss you to get you back on the good side.”

Chat Noir’s eyes went wide. _ “That’s _ what you meant when you mentioned a ‘kiss’?” He groaned and buried his face in his hands. Yup—he must have forgotten about the photo. “Not fair. Twice? That is _not_ fair.”

“Sorry, Chaton.” Ladybug patted his back. He was so skinny she could feel the ridges of his spine even from the brief contact.

“At least it was with you.” His voice, strained with abject misery, came out still muffled by his hands. “Twice.”

Ladybug watched him. Maybe it was guilt, maybe sympathy, maybe a streak of playfulness. Maybe the traumatic akuma experience had softened her up. Whatever the reason, a thought wafted lazily through her mind and out of her mouth. “You know… you’re right. It isn’t fair, is it?”

Chat Noir looked up.

“I remember my first kiss, but you don’t.” She hummed and tapped her chin, making a show of remembering. “It wasn’t a bad kiss, but we _ were _ in the middle of fighting an akuma, so I didn’t get to enjoy it much, either.”

Oops—that came out sounding a little, no, a _ lot _ more flirty than she had intended. Anyway, if she was going to commit to this idea, she may as well go all in.

Chat Noir’s cheeks were back to that healthy shade of rose pink. “Um…”

The silly cat was so flustered he couldn’t even think of anything to say.

“Just once. It won’t mean anything—nothing changes because of this. This is just so you’ll have something to remember as your first kiss.” Ladybug hesitated, wondering if she had misjudged her partner, then added: “If you want to, that is.”

“Um—really? What?” The arm supporting his weight buckled, and he scrambled to right himself. His brain seemed to be in the middle of exploding as he comprehended what she was suggesting. “Are you serious? You’re not kidding?”

“Do you agree to the conditions?”

“I, uh—yes?”

“Good. Close your eyes, Minou…”

He obliged immediately. It was cute how quickly he accepted her instruction.

“You’re not going to leave, are you?” He whined softly. 

Ladybug didn’t answer. She was too busy psyching herself up to _ actually _kiss him. Even though she’d done it before, kissing someone under pressure and with lives at stake is very different from doing it on a secluded rooftop, under an autumn sunset when things could easily slide into ‘romantic’ territory.

Her heart pounded with a mixture of nervousness and anticipation as she leaned toward him. His head was turned slightly, but since she had just told him to close his eyes without much preparation, the angle wasn’t ideal. She shifted her weight and propped herself up on her hands, acutely aware of how close her arm was to his knee, and leaned forward.

Surely he could hear her—the thought made her feel self-conscious of her own breathing. His skin was really smooth. His lips looked—perfect, she noticed, as if they had been carved out of marble and infused with the glow of youth. The pounding of her heart intensified until she could feel it in her throat.

“Ladybug?”

The subtle wind of her own name against her lips was like a starting pistol—Ladybug closed the distance suddenly, as if to stifle his questioning and reassure him that she was still there.

The kiss was chaste and a little awkward, as she tried not to lose her balance and fall into his lap. She felt him gasp slightly, as if surprised that she had followed through. Before he could react, she pulled away, opening her eyes in time to see him sway forward to chase her, eyes still closed, like a cartoon character trailing after an enticing scent. 

She touched his nose with her index finger. “That’s all you get, mon Minou.”

“Ladybug…” his eyes fluttered open, looking dazed and unfocused. “You’re cruel, you know that?” He laughed ruefully.

“And here I thought I was doing something nice for you.”

“It _ was _ nice,” he returned quickly, then muttered under his breath, “That’s the problem.”

“Personally, I think kisses are overrated,” Ladybug declared. After the buildup, it had been a mere brushing of skin. Anticlimactic, even. She attributed the butterflies only now settling down in her stomach to nerves, not the kiss itself.

“You didn’t like it?” His face fell.

“Don’t worry, Chaton.” Ladybug patted his shoulder. Her face broke into a playful smile as she recited the knackered phrase. “It’s not you, it’s me. I just don’t see what all the hype is about.”

“Yeah, it’s you,” he shot back, not unkindly. “It’s because you don’t love me, so you did it all wrong. Let me show you how it’s done. One more—my turn.”

“Are you calling me a bad kisser?” Ladybug pouted.

“Never, Milady.” He winked. “But a _ loving _kiss is far different from just a run-of-the-mill friendly kiss.”

“We said _ just one, _ kitty,” Ladybug warned.

“Please?”

She hesitated. “... okay. One more, and that’s it.”

Chat Noir grinned. “Close your eyes, Bugaboo.”

“Why do I feel like you’re up to no good?” Ladybug closed her eyes, slowly, one eyebrow raised in a dubious expression.

“Relax… I’d never make light of a kiss with you, Milady,” he reassured in a soft voice. The next time he spoke, his voice came from so close to her cheek she felt the minuscule hairs tickle and stand on end. “This is what it feels like to be kissed by someone who loves you with all of their being.”

The kiss started so slowly and gently that Ladybug could hardly tell when it stopped being his breath that she felt on her lips, and when their skin made contact. When his lips parted slightly, just enough to nuzzle against the crevice of hers, her stomach tingled. Her sharp inhalation brought the scent of boy mixed with cinnamon—chapstick?—that she hadn’t noticed before. She could feel his careful attention to every minute touch and caress. Forgetting the passage of time, she lost consciousness of everything except those soft, searching, perfect, barely-even-chapped lips exploring her own. The thought of stopping didn’t even occur to her.

When he finally broke contact, she opened her eyelids slowly, as if surfacing from a dream. Evening had fallen, and they were illuminated only by the glow of the city. Chat Noir’s catlike eyes were luminescent—inhuman, yet so comfortingly familiar—mere centimeters from her own. He suddenly grinned cheekily and shifted back. A flush spread to her face as she came to her senses, realizing she had been _ completely into _the kiss, and she brought her hands up to cover her mouth.

“Still think kisses are overrated, Milady?”

“Y-ya… yes…” Why couldn’t she speak properly?! She scowled at Chat Noir. “Not fair! You cheated!”

Chat Noir put a hand to his chest in a dramatic gesture of feigned offense. “Milady! How did I cheat?” Even in the low light, Ladybug could see the ruddiness of his cheeks below the mask, pink as a peony at peak health, and foolish glee spilled from his expression in the form of a wide smile and twinkling eyes. Oh, he knew _ exactly _what he had done to her, and he was pleased with himself.

“You broke _ all the rules!” _Ladybug covered her cheeks with her palms, knowing from the warmth that she was still blushing. “I said just one. And it wasn’t allowed to mean anything!”

“It didn’t have to mean anything to _ you.” _ A tinge of sadness that passed over his face quickly disappeared as his grin widened mischievously. “What about the third rule? ‘Nothing changes after this.’ Did something change, Bugaboo?”

“In your dreams.” Ladybug shoved him halfheartedly.

He rocked back, playfully amplifying the effect of her blow, but then, chuckling quietly, scooted closer to her so they were side-by-side, overlooking the city once again.

“Thanks, LB.” His tone was earnest this time as he peeked at her sideways. “Just so you know, I think you’re amazing. And beautiful. And adorable. And—”

Ladybug bumped his shoulder with hers. “Okay, Minou, that’s enough. You don’t want to make me conceited.”

He fell silent, and Ladybug felt strangely guilty for shutting him up.

“Just so you know…” she started, and felt him go still at her side. “I think you’re amazing, too.”

He turned to look at her, mouth slack with surprise. Guilt gnawed at her, as his reaction reminded her that she rarely complimented him, and was usually quicker to put him down. It felt too intense to have him look at her while she said such things—the prickly, flustered warmth was climbing up her neck on its return to her face, so Ladybug trained her eyes on the Eiffel Tower in the distance, barely visible through the haze of light pollution, trying to look composed.

“Sorry if I treat you like I don’t need you sometimes.” She drew her knees closer to her chest and hugged them, interlinking her fingers. “I _ do _need you. You’re… my other half. You’re really important to me, Chat Noir. Even if I don’t feel the same way about you as you feel about me, don’t think that I… don’t love you.”

The softly spoken words hung in the air between them, Ladybug’s stomach churning as she thought of all the ways he might misconstrue her meaning. She hoped he wouldn’t tease. She hoped he would understand. She had never felt more vulnerable in front of him than now.

“… I know.” Chat Noir turned his body to face her directly, his voice mercifully sincere. “Thank you, Ladybug. I’m going to cherish those words, more than you probably realize. I completely understand, and it’s okay.” He gave a little laugh, like a low hum in his throat. “By the way, I love it when you tease me, so don’t worry about me taking it personally. Please never stop.”

Ladybug made the mistake of glancing at him as he spoke. He wore an expression of soft, open adoration, one hand propped on the roof behind him, beholding her as if she were the most fascinating sight in the universe.

Her stomach fluttered, and she was suddenly aware of her own heartbeat. “You’re not allowed to look at me like that,” she insisted, ducking into her arms.

“Like what? Like I love you?” Chat beamed.

“Yes,” Ladybug huffed.

“Can’t help it,” he retorted flippantly, his smile never faltering.

“You’re too much, Chaton,” Ladybug mumbled. “Never should have let you kiss me.” Her face went ablaze as she realized she was basically admitting that it had affected her more than she tried to let on.

Chat gasped as realization dawned on him. “I broke it. I broke the third rule, didn’t I?”

“No!” Ladybug protested, and stood up, nonplussed. “Okay, this was fun, Chat Noir, but our lives are waiting for us. I’m sure our parents are worried. We’d better go home now!”

He stood up, too. “Why do you have to run away now, Bugaboo? This is getting really interesting.” He grinned a cat-got-the-canary grin and fished for her hand, adding a muttered, “Besides, no one’s worried about me,” that he probably didn’t intend for her to hear.

She bit her lip, too bothered by his self-deprecating words to respond to his banter.

“Well, if you must.” Chat Noir drew her hand to his lips for the customary kiss, though this time it sent a tingle up the length of Ladybug’s arm.

_ “I _ worry about you,” Ladybug announced emphatically, not noticing how abrupt it sounded, mostly concerned with chasing away the melancholy look that had settled on his face.

“What’s that, Milady?”

“I worry about you quite a lot. So don’t say no one’s worried about you. I don’t know what your home life is like—please don’t tell me—but for what it’s worth, I care about you.”

Mild surprise registered in his eyes at the fact that she had taken note of his words. Giving her a bittersweet half-smile, he seemed about to argue or explain, but settled with, “Thanks, Bugaboo.”

His fingers were still hooked around hers. She could _ feel _his longing for her to stay.

“Well…” She had stayed long enough. “Good night, Minou.”

He gave her fingers a faint squeeze and released them. “Good night, my love. Thanks for spending time with me. Your company is better than gold. Better than chocolate, better than passionfruit macarons.” His voice took on a sing-songy, playful tone toward the end.

_ Passionfruit macarons? _Ladybug filed that away in her memory.

Blowing her a kiss, Chat Noir extended his staff and left without any more fanfare, like ripping off a band-aid, as if it were the only way he could make himself part with her.

Ladybug was slower to unhook her yo-yo from her waist. She looked around, disoriented, for a few seconds before remembering she was supposed to be looking for something to anchor her yo-yo to.

_ My love. _That was a new one. She wondered if he would start calling her that more often, or whether he had just gotten caught up in the moment. She wouldn’t admit it, but it made her feel warm and tingly to hear him say it, and the feeling returned every time she replayed it in her mind.

She wouldn’t admit it, but she was fairly positive he _ had _ broken the third rule. Something had changed, and it wasn’t only because of the kiss.

Gathering her wits, she swung home, her heart battering against the walls of her chest like a caged bird.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Thanks for reading. What did you think of this story? I write about kisses too much, don't I? I know fics with a similar premise have been written before, but as my writing friend and I like to tell one another, someone may have written it, but _you_ haven't written it. :P So, I hope it was a fun read.
> 
> I actually ordered Ender's Game in French while I was writing this. It was a good book, and since it's a kids' book I figured that the French shouldn't be too difficult to read. :P (Edit: Now that I read over the synopsis/description though, I realize this book has layers of social commentary that probably went over my head when I read it as a kid. Apparently it’s on recommended reading lists for some branches of the U.S. military. So not a kids’ book I guess. XD It should be interesting to read it again.)
> 
> Let me know what you liked, what you disliked, or any other thoughts that passed through your mind as you read this. I like to hear from y'all. ^_^; Cheers!


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